


Sense-Ability

by der_tanzer



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 00:42:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2249508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/der_tanzer/pseuds/der_tanzer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick's temporarily lost something. Cody helps make up for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sense-Ability

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valis2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valis2/gifts).



> A tragically late birthday gift for my dearest L.

Nick thought his eyes were open but it was still dark. Opening his eyes was supposed to make things lighter. Wasn’t it? That fact that he couldn’t answer that question definitively worried him even more than the persistent darkness. He flexed his arms and was relieved to find them free. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t tied up and blindfolded at least. But he was naked and when he raised his hand to his face, his fingers encountered something like soft fabric over his eyes. He was blindfolded after all.

Suddenly Nick remembered.

“Cody?” he cried, flinging both arms out and grasping frantically for something, anything, to hold onto. “Cody? Murray? Somebody?” But waving his arms suddenly threw him off balance, sending the bed tilting and spinning as if in an earthquake, and he grabbed the sides of the mattress with a wordless shout of terror.

Then a strong hand pried his fingers free and Nick clamped onto it instead.

“Easy,” Cody murmured and his other hand touched Nick’s cheek, so strong and gentle that his fear melted away like snow under the golden sun that was Cody Allen. Nick caught his breath and smiled uncertainly as the bed settled down and the world returned to an even keel. He knew where he was now, remembered what had happened, and was preparing to laugh at himself in another minute.

Then he heard Murray’s voice nearby, high and frightened, and his relief turned to guilt.

“It’s okay, Boz,” he said quickly. “I was just a little confused.”

“Oh. Oh, okay. Did—did you have a good nap?”

Nick relaxed, his uncertain smile turning into the real thing under Murray’s greater confusion. Even sick and temporarily blinded, he was the protector and Murray, so sweet and innocent in all things, his to protect.

“Yeah, buddy. Everything’s fine.” As if to prove it, Nick let go of Cody’s hand and sat up, letting one foot fall to the floor. An almost joke (sole of his foot—sole of the boat—Murray’s heart and Cody’s soul) flitted across his mind and was gone. Nick was at home, in his cabin, in his bunk, with his lover and his friend. Everything was fine. 

“Oh. Okay. I’ll just—um—get back to the galley. Supper will be ready in half an hour, okay?”

“Thanks, Murray,” Cody said, and Nick heard his voice moving away. There was a brief rustle and he imagined Cody hugging Murray. Maybe walking with him toward the door, his arm around Murray’s shoulders.

The last couple of days had been hard on everyone. Nick felt sorry for himself but he never sank so deeply into self-pity that he forgot his friends were hurting, too. Murray assumed the blame for Nick’s mishap, as was his way. He was the one who brought home the plant material to which Nick turned out to be allergic, and he took full responsibility for allowing his friends to come in contact with it unprotected. It wasn’t strictly Murray’s fault that Nick, after a nasty bout of sneezing, had dropped the dried flora and immediately rubbed his face, but to Murray it was all of a piece. Nick’s swollen, infected eyes were his fault and he wouldn’t be talked out of it.

Cody’s guilt was less direct and more about wishing it had happened to him instead. Cody always wished that bad things happened to him instead of his friends, never knowing that they both would rather be nursed by him than see him sick. They were only men and there was a lot about themselves they didn’t know.

Nick heard Murray’s footsteps trudge away, through the passage and up the steps to the salon. Before they had faded completely, Cody returned and sat beside him.

“Time for your pills, babe,” Cody said. Nick opened his mouth trustingly for Cody to place them on his tongue and closed his teeth gently on the withdrawing fingers.

“Don’t you want water?” Cody laughed. Nick released him and tossed his head back, swallowing hard.

“Don’t need it. Sorry I freaked out, man. It’s just so weird waking up in the dark, and the pills mess with my head.”

“I know, hon. It’s not the first time, remember? But I’m always here for you, no matter how many times you wake up screaming like a ninny.”

“Shut up,” Nick said, able to laugh about it now. “Anyway, I haven’t heard you complaining about my heightened sense of touch. Are you gonna miss that when I take the bandages off for good tomorrow?”

“I don’t know. Are you?” Cody’s hands on his face made Nick tremble, eager for the kiss that had to follow. But the anticipation was so very sweet. Cody’s fingertips grazed the sensitive skin behind Nick’s ears and Nick reached for him, fumbling at little when confronted with the expanse of Cody’s chest and then finding his neck to hold onto. The kiss, when it came, somehow managed to be totally unexpected.

Cody pushed Nick lightly and he sank back, pulling Cody down on top of him. It was true, his sense of touch, of feeling, of personal space and contact, were all more sensitive than Nick had ever known they could be. Such things were never properly understood without personal experience. He felt the air move as Cody undressed above him, the teasing brush of fabric that told him clothes were being jettisoned from the bunk. The thick hair on his arms stood up and the very air between them seemed to crackle.

“Hold me,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around Cody’s solid mass. Cody slipped an arm behind his neck and kissed him, softly but insistently. Nick opened to him, parting his legs and rolling his hips in easy counterpoint to Cody’s gentle thrusts, safe in the electricity of this dark passion.

“Okay, babe?” Cody murmured, running his palm firmly down Nick’s ribs and over the taut swell of his ass.

“Yes, talk to me,” Nick groaned. “I need to hear your voice.”

Cody purred combined appreciation and acquiescence, poured the sweet honey of his words into Nick’s grateful ear. Nick clung to him and Cody’s voice, filled with so much need and satisfaction, caressed him like a physical thing. Without his sight everything became tactile, dancing across his nerves like fire, burning bright images of pleasure behind his eyes.

“I love you,” Cody whispered and the words were feathers and silk across his skin. “Love you so much, Nick.”

It was exactly what Nick needed to hear and he came with a stifled shout, clinging to Cody’s broad back, absorbing the sounds of Cody’s pleasure and the feel of his orgasm, pulsing hot and slick on Nick’s belly. For those few seconds Nick could see him, tan and smiling, see his thick cock and rippling muscles, as clearly as he’d seen it last week. As clearly as he would tomorrow. 

Cody started to pull away and Nick held on harder, unwilling to let go of the vision.

“Hey, you okay?” 

“I can see you,” Nick said softly. “Stay and let me look a little longer.”

Cody murmured something too low for even Nick to hear, a sound that might have been a word or a sigh or a sob, and kissed him once more, slow and deep. He shifted carefully under Nick’s watchful hands and settled comfortably on his chest, his head on Nick’s shoulder. Bodies pressed together, legs entwined, Nick held onto him and felt complete in every sense.


End file.
